By now, all of you have most likely seen this video (or seen it and seen it and seen it) of an Iraqi reporter hurling not just one, but two shoes at President Bush yesterday.
Myself, I only watched it once since that’s all I really ever watch anything, including the video of Brown Eyes’ birth 11 years ago. OK, I admit to watching an episode or two of Lost a few times over.
But I digress….
While there has been talk ad naseum about the appropriateness of this reporter’s action and his deserved consequence(s), there has been very little discussion about President Bush’s response to the event. In typical tone-deaf Bush fashion, when asked why he thought someone might want to throw a shoe at him, the President of the United States of America said,
“I don’t know what his beef is.”
In actuality, the reporter, Muntazer al-Zaidi, was very clear about his “beef” when he shouted in Arabic as he flung his shoe (a traditional Iraqi insult), “This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.”
But, since President Bush likely doesn’t speak Arabic, maybe I can help him understand Mr. al-Zaidi’s “beef”:
Population of Iraq: 27 million
Iraqi civilian deaths due to violence since the invasion: 208,000
Iraqi children, women and men wounded: over 1,000,000
Number of Iraqis internally displaced: 2,400,000
Number of Iraqis who have fled the country: 2,000,000
Average hours of electricity per day in Baghdad before invasion: 20
Average hours of electricity per day in 2007: 8.9
Iraqis who oppose the presence of US forces: 79%
To this I’ll add my own beefy list:
Number of Iraqi hijackers involved in 9/11: 0
Number of weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq: 0
Number of al-Qaida in Iraq prior to invasion: 0
US military deaths in Iraq as of 12/1/08: 4,213
US soldiers returning from Iraq who show signs of PTSD: 1 in 3
US military operations in Iraq through FY 2007: $416.4 billion
US diplomacy and aid in Iraq through FY 2007: $30.8 billion
US spending on Iraq veteran benefits through FY 2007: $1.5 billion
Initial estimate of Iraq war cost: $50 to $60 billion
Funds requested by Bush Administration through FY 2007: $607 billion
So, in the end, the question may not be why Mr. al-Zaidi felt compelled to throw his shoes at President Bush, but why more of us have not.
2 Comments so far
Leave a comment
Living in the bubble that I do (with DH in finals lock down), I hadn’t seen this. Classic. And thanks for the excellent shoe-throwing round up. I see that Reporter’s loafers and raise him two clogs!
Comment by Jumbleberry Jam December 17, 2008 @ 1:37 pmVery nicely put!
Comment by Laurel December 17, 2008 @ 9:46 pm